Recluse was a relatively big city compared to most of the scattered colonies left after Cipher’s coup. There were bigger of course, New York had somehow remain almost unchanged like it had for hundreds of years. Damian parked the car in the corner next to the ramp on the top of a car park and the agents climbed out, slinging their R.E.A.D.I.s onto their shoulders. Morning light peeked over the horizon and washed over city. The light did nothing to make the city look better. It had a gritty, dirty, intense and hostile feeling ingrained in it. The light even looked dimmer there as if the city was bullying the sun daily. Elliea gazed over the cityscape and hugged herself sadly. “Who knew that in just five years....” She shook her head sadly. Damian put an arm across her shoulders, “Our world as we know it has changed. The playing field and games are totally different now aren’t they.” Elliea nodded then followed her friend as he led the way to the heart of the city. As they walked the sounds of honking horns, shouts, sirens, angry music, and general clamor of busy, dangerous Recluse surrounded them. The sidewalks were narrow and Damian had to push Elliea against the wall as police cars blazed past three times in fifteen minutes. People glared out at everything and everyone from alleys, and stairwells and buildings, daring someone to cross them. Elliea briefly hoped that they didn’t get picked as targets for a mugging. If it was just a few people no sweat, but if a whole gang jumped them… she tried not to think of it. Traveling in packs was the best mode of transportation here, lone folks were either dead meat or worse than the gangs.
Damian led the way to a crumbling office building that advertised “The Smartest Lawyers in Town”. He made his way through the small, dingy room to the tiny reception desk where a familiar face asked what she could help them with. Damian leaned on the desk corner and smiled, “Hey Callihan, I need to talk with Dan.” She quirked an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, no handouts here.” Damian twitched back than sighed and grumbled, “Fine, put me through my paces.” Then continued louder. “Not even a life saving pickle?” She replied, “How did you hear we had those?” “A guy at a hotel told me. They had bad food.” She tilted her head, “Rat problem?” Damian ran a hand through his hair, bored. “Among other things. The bellhop was energetic.” Sweety Callihan thought for a moment while looking into Damian’s eyes then spoke once more, “Can’t be too careful these days. The keepers get more and more clever. We lost a fellow in the TacDiv just last night. When you looking to talk with Mr. King?” Elliea placed a hand on the desk, “As soon as possible. Is he in?” Callihan smiled professionally, “He’s on beat.” Damian quirked a sardonic eyebrow, “Law practice has changed a lot.” Sweety gave him an dry look, “He doesn’t work here he’s a cop. And just a suggestion, find him on the streets don’t go to the station.” The two agents thanked Callihan and hit the streets again. They cruised in the car for two hours until Elliea finally caught sight of King walking down 4th on Frith wearing a tac vest over his uniform. All the law wore army grade gear to give them a fighting chance. Damian cruised to a stop next to the man and spoke out the open window. “King.” Danny relaxed when he saw his long time friends and drew close to the car door. “It’s been a while.” Damian shrugged, “We needed to talk.” King chuckled, “Oh so it’s business, otherwise you wouldn’t have come around? Thanks.” Damian smiled, “Yeah man. Actually, I got that feeling again.” King sobered and leaned on the window sill, “I’m listening”
King made plans to have them come to his apartment to get into the nittygritties of all the Intel being filtered to him the day after next. Damian pulled the car away and Elliea glanced at him, “What are we doing in the meantime?” Damian smirked, “Dinner in a grimy alley? We can use trash cans as tables and I’ll set something on fire in lieu of candles.” She burst out laughing. “Just for the sake of it what would you set on fire?” Damian gave a mock evil look, “Our papers and credentials. Revolution!” Elliea laughed once more as Damian pushed the left turn signal, “Actually there’s another contact here.” She shrugged, “Good, it’ll keep it interesting.” Damian took a turn down a even less nice looking street, “It’s pretty rough, you might not want to come…” Elliea frowned, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that to me.” There was a long silence and then Damian sighed sadly, “Okay are you miffed at me?” She shrugged. Damian thought for a moment then decided to go with a classic move, “I’m sorry.” Elliea softened, “Do you remember The Moldova Crisis?” He swallowed hard, “Yeah…..shoulda trusted my gut. You got me out that time.” She looked out the window at the brick wall of the alley they were parking in. “What happens if someday we can’t get out...” Damian cleared his throat, “You can’t think about that. You’ve just got to do it till we can’t anymore, we’ll cross the bridge when we come to it.” She sighed and looked at her hands as she twisted them in her lap, “We’ve been doing this a long time, I’m ready to slow down. I’m ready to have a life.” Damian took her hand for a moment, halting the hand chaffing, “After this mission, you can be done. Last time.” Neither looked at each other, not knowing whether believing that would be denial or not. They entered a run down diner and had a meal in companionable and thought heavy silence.
As night fell they trekked into the darkest parts of the city. Damian carefully tailed a group of punk kids that were talking excitedly about “the events that night”. Elliea tightened her ponytail in her bill cap and wrapped her hipster overcoat tighter and hoped nobody would make trouble. It was just so much more work when they had to beat their way into a gang. They followed the seedy characters into yet another of the many grungy, dark alleyways, only this one had more people and they were slowly filtering into the doorway at the back of a nondescript building. Entering, the agents found an almost pitch black corridor that felt like it inclined down. They edged their way forward around a few twists and turns and just when Elliea was starting to get nervous about being in the dark so long they saw red light ahead. They reached the light and entered a large room packed densely with lowlifes. The light was emitting from some bonfires scattered to give a dim hue to the whole place yet leaving the corners in deep shadow. The ground was concrete and the walls were brick the roof was missing in places and the crowd seemed to be buzzing in excitement. Suddenly a roar went up and the crowd surged to the middle of the room, packing tighter. They cheered and shouted cruel things for a minute then another roar went up and everyone backed off a little. Damian had to talk loudly right into Elliea’s ear to be heard, “We need to get to the front, that’s where we’ll find our man.” Elliea nodded and yelled back, “What is this place anyway?” Damian yelled back as they fought to the front, “Underground fight ring. Illegal of course.” They finally reached the front and saw a cleared space of about 20 by 20 feet with two men in it. Another man was walking away and a fourth was being drug away by the shoulders.
-last edited on Jan 24, 2019 4:13:58 GMT by Essa Kryze: cHaRaCtEr LiMiT 8D
Post by Essa Kryze on Jan 24, 2019 4:00:48 GMT
Chapter Two (ABV) Troubleshooting (part 5)
There was evidence that several fights had already taken place but also that the night was still young. The two men in their corners were clearly prepping for combat. One was lanky and had dark snake eyes. The other one shocked Elliea. It was Landon. He was wrapping his hands with very used wrappers. He had a set, removed look on his face but she had no time to think about it as Damian moved up next to him and started shouting into Landon’s ear. “Hey!” Landon frowned, “What are you doing here? What do you want?” Damian grinned, “I wanna talk.” Landon glanced over his shoulder at his pacing and ready opponent. “I’m a little busy.” Damian put a hand on his shoulder, “Just a short time?” Landon stepped out from under Damian’s hand as the crowd began getting ugly and shouting for things to start. Landon spoke distantly after a moment, “Fine, a few minutes after.” Then he stepped back into the ring and there was nothing to do but watch. The snake man and Landon squared off and scanned each other. No hand shake, no referee, no talking, they knew what to do. They were well trained to the system. Both stepped back and took up boxing stances and began circling. The lanky man struck first with a flurry of kicks and punches. Landon blocked all but one shin to the ribs blow and tightened his guard. Snake was extremely fast. He circled to the right then threw four lefts and a right hook. Landon blocked them and leapt inside the other man’s reach delivering an extremely solid knee to the gut. The snake man backed off for a second and attempted to catch his breath. Landon followed him step for step and boxed the man’s ears three or four times quickly.
The man blocked a fifth hook and rammed his head into Landon driving the latter back so Snake gained a few moments of respite and a little space. Landon faked a right hook and then brought his left fist up in an uppercut, clipping Snake’s jaw. Snake immediately retaliated, bringing his clasped fists down on Landon’s head and then hooking them behind his neck. He managed to get in a few knees before Landon struck the snake man’s armpit then broke the hold by slamming his wrist outwards against his opponent’s. The fight seemed to be just warming up as the crowd got more and more intense. Money was changing hands fast and people were closing the circle some. Landon aimed a roundhouse kick at his opponent’s injured side forcing Snake to jump back. Landon took that opportunity to close in and grab Snake’s arm from behind. Snake flailed at Landon’s head but could do nothing to stop Landon. In wild desperation and strength, aided by adrenaline and pain, Snake brought his combat boot down as hard as possible on Landon’s leg just above the knee. Landon threw an arm around Snake’s throat but Snake brought that boot down several more times hurriedly and Landon released his victim, giving a little ground. Snake rushed Landon with a hook that Landon blocked but followed up with a boot to the gut and shoved Landon back and off balance. Landon fell hard on his bruised leg and groaned, fast as lightning Snake was sitting on him and attacking. Landon blocked as many hits as possible but lots were slipping through, in a desperate move he kneed Snake in the spine then rolled the man off. He leapt to his feet putting his guard up again. Snake tried to rise as well but only got halfway as Landon laid him out twice more until he stayed down, nice and quiet. The crowd roared as Landon gazed at his fallen foe dispassionately and wiped his soaked hair out of his face. The victor stalked over to the crowd and collected a wad of cash from one of the ringleaders. He then turned to Damian and Elliea and jerked his head towards the exit.
They all trouped out silently into the cold night. Landon stood in the shadows of the alley and crossed his arms. “I have three more matches tonight. Talk.” Damian calculated what to say. “I may or may not need your talents in the near future. I think that,” Landon cut him off with a huff, dropping his arms to his side. “Are you for real? You seriously think that I’m going to jump back into the deep end after last time’s spectacular failure?” Damian shrugged, irritated by Landon’s combative behavior. “I came to ask that. I made a bad choice, it happens. I’m sorry, you know if I could I’d change what happened.” Landon raised his voice a little, getting more upset. “ ‘made a bad choice’ ? You helped ruin my life and countless others!” Damian shouted back. “Oh yeah and you’re making good choices?! You’re in an illegal fight ring!” Landon took a menacing step forward and put his fist into Damian’s face and responded in a cool tone through gritted teeth, “What are you going to do, arrest me?” Damian clenched his fists and took a step forward as well but Elliea stepped between them, “Landon, why are you doing this?” Landon looked away, still angry, “Pays the bills. Survival is the only thing that matters now.” Elliea glanced at Damian and lifted an eyebrow towards Landon. Damian rolled his eyes and shrugged half turning away. Elliea sighed and put a hand on Landon's arm. “I know you’re hurting, we all are. So much. But here’s the thing,” She paused until he finally looked her in the eyes. “You can’t stay in denial and deafen yourself from what your heart says is right. You will never find peace until you listen. What would Laila want?” Landon shifted from foot to foot for a moment before slumping his shoulders and giving a sorrowful smile, “She would have said something like, ‘Let’s go kick those losers in the rear and take back our world.’ " He sighed, “I guess you got me in. Don’t expect me to be nice about it.” He stalked back down the tunnel without another word. Both Damian and Elliea sighed in relief and Damian slung an arm around her shoulders as the walked out of the alley. “And that, was why I brought you along.”
I'm glad I decided to wait to read this nice chunk of story for a time when I could really enjoy it. Brick, Essa, you're doing an outstanding job of introducing the story. The gritty, apocalyptic setting and feeling is so vivid in the descriptions and in the spirit of the characters, and the occasional wry humor and frankness that comes with them makes it all the more lifelike. O.O
OK, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't have read this so soon after a near panic-attack IRL. Now my heart's racing for 1st place in the adrenaline marathon again.
oof, the mention of Laila and Landon's reaction hurt >.<
I'm glad I decided to wait to read this nice chunk of story for a time when I could really enjoy it. Brick, Essa, you're doing an outstanding job of introducing the story. The gritty, apocalyptic setting and feeling is so vivid in the descriptions and in the spirit of the characters, and the occasional wry humor and frankness that comes with them makes it all the more lifelike. O.O
OK, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't have read this so soon after a near panic-attack IRL. Now my heart's racing for 1st place in the adrenaline marathon again.
oof, the mention of Laila and Landon's reaction hurt >.<
If I wasn't hooked already, I sure am now.
It helps for me to listen to rap, rock or dupstep while writing. XD Thank you so much, I'm grinning like an idiot right now!
Aw I'm sorry that happened. 3: But I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. :3
![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
